#and now you have this
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During season 3, there’s a deleted scene (because I said so) of Max and El’s first spin-the-bottle spy attempt.
The bottle slows to a stop right on Steve's name, and the two girls giggle as El puts the blindfold on.
She finds him in his Scoops Ahoy outfits, and El giggles harder as she tells Max, "He's kissing some girl."
Max gasps, "Who is it?"
El starts walking closer, trying to see who it is, but their hair is covering their face. "Some girl with curly hair."
"Nancy?" Max whispers conspiratorily.
El shakes her head. "Her hair is short. This girl's hair is longer." She starts to turn red, feeling like she's been intruding for too long. She starts to reach up for her blindfold when the person pulls back and says, “Ahoy, Captain.”
Just as Steve groans in irritation, El yanks the blindfold off and freezes. Max shakes her and asks, “What? What happened?”
El pauses, thinking back to the time Mike had to explain why he was so angry when Troy called Will a fairy. She didn’t understand why people were upset about a boy loving another boy, but she understood that it wasn’t something people talked about. Just like she wasn’t allowed to use her powers, Will wasn’t allowed to openly like boys.
So, she just lets out a deep breath and reasons with herself that it isn’t a lie when she says, “They started using tongue.”
While Max shrieks with laughter, El smiles at her, trying not to think of the boy Steve was with.
-:-:-:-:-:-
(An added extra part that is WAY longer than intended. Oops. Coming back after editing to add JSKEHDISBEHSH)
The next year, the information seems to come in handy when Dustin urges El to see if his friend Eddie is still somehow alive in the upside down.
The others are all there, trying to describe what he looks like when Nancy and Jonathan volunteer to run to the school and grab his missing poster for a photo. But the descriptions paint a clear picture in El’s head of someone she’s seen before. Briefly. But she remembers.
Curly hair. Wears lots of rings. Big brown doe eyes and full lips - Steve’s very helpful description.
And El can’t help but turn to Steve and whisper, “Ahoy, Captain?
Steve’s eyes widen and his cheeks flush red. His mouth opens and closes asking, “How-? Why-? When-?”
“Is that him?” El asks firmly.
Steve only nods. Brushing off everyone who asks What does she mean? By telling them to be quiet while El puts on her blindfold.
She finds herself somewhere dark and cold, feeling the familiarity of the place as she seeks out Eddie. She walks around, calling out his name, getting more and more desperate as time goes by.
But she suddenly feels something watching her and quickly turns around, finding Eddie as pale as a ghost staring at her from the ground. She bends down and puts a hand on his face. “We’re coming for you, okay? We’re coming.”
Eddie tilts his head and asks, “Who?”
“Steve,” El automatically says, hoping it’s the right person to name.
The name seems to give Eddie a small bit of hope.
“And Dustin,” El adds. “Dustin’s coming for you.”
Eddie gives her a weak smile and mumbles, “I knew he’d miss me.”
El smiles at the joke. She hears the other people in the room begin to ask if he’s alive, to remind him that someone named Wayne is coming.
El squeezes his cold cheek, hoping some of her warmth will bleed through the connection. “Just hang on a little longer, okay? They say Wayne’s coming too.”
Eddie weakly smiles again and murmurs, “Wayne.” His eyes get heavy, and El shakes him. “Mmm awake,” Eddie slurs. El hears footsteps behind her and turns, not seeing anything, but as she turns back she finds Eddie disappearing.
She reaches out yelling, “No! No! Hold on!”
When he’s completely gone she yanks the blindfold off, weeping as someone pulls her into their chest. She doesn’t hear any of the questions around her as she says, “Run to him. Run!”
But finally, Mike gets through to her and asks, “Did you see Steve there?”
El wipes her eyes and asks, “What?”
“Did you see Steve there?” Mike repeats.
El glances around, noticing that Steve, Dustin, Lucas, and Robin are no longer there. “Where-“
“They went to him as soon as you said we’re coming for you. Did you see them there?” Will explains quickly.
El shakes her head. “There were footsteps but… Eddie vanished before I saw anyone.”
Mike looks far off and puts his head in his hands.
They’re too late.
A tense silence passes.
“This is a code green! I repeat this is a code green!” Dustin’s staticky voice rings through the walkie.
The three kids race toward it, Mike grabs it first asking, “He’s okay?”
“He’s alive,” Dustin says, sounding choked up. “He’s alive.”
El sighs in relief and rushes off to the door.
“Where are you going?” Will asks.
“The hospital, come on.”
The trip there is fast, but no one lets them see Eddie yet as he’s still in critical condition. But they all opt to wait as long as they need to get any updates.
El sees Steve eye her for a while before she moves to sit in the chair next to him. She waits for him to talk first.
“So… how did you… know?” Steve asks.
El flushes red and ducks her head. “Max and I were playing this game where we would spin a bottle and-”
“Okay, I know where this is going. Jesus, kid,” Steve mutters.
El glares at him. “We would spin a bottle and see who it landed on to spy on them.”
“Oh,” Steve says, pausing before he suddenly realizes, “You spied on me?”
“Yes,” El replies because friends don’t lie.
Steve flushes red and asks, “So, how much of me and Eddie did you see?”
El leans in to whisper, “You were kissing a lot.”
“Christ,” Steve says, before burying his head in his hands. He slowly looks up at her and asks, “Did you… tell anyone?”
“No.”
Steve sighs and leans back in his chair, staring off.
El can’t help but press on. “Did you love him?”
Steve stops breathing for a second as he considers the question. He turns to her slowly and says, “I did.”
“Did?”
Steve runs a hand over his face. “It’s complicated.”
El pauses and says, “Well, it looked like he really loved you too.” When Steve gives her a look, she adds, “And he looked happy when I said you were coming for him.”
A conflicted look crosses over Steve’s face. “Did he really?”
El nods. “Friends don’t lie.”
Steve smiles and huffs a small laugh. “That’s right.” He hesitates before slinging an arm around El’s shoulder and pulling her into his side as much as he can with the arm of chair being between them. He plants a kiss to her head and whispers, “I’ll give you a lecture later about the spying thing. But for now… thank you.”
El leans into the hug, staying until an older man walks into the room.
“Wayne!” Dustin yells and runs to wrap his arms around him.
El watches as Steve slowly stands up and offers his hand to Wayne when Dustin pulls away. Wayne looks at Steve for a moment before pulling him into a hug.
El wants to ask and know the whole story behind Steve and Eddie and this Wayne person. But she thinks it’s time to look away as Steve breaks down in Wayne’s arms and the older man’s bottom lip quivers. “I know, son. I know.”
-:-:-:-:-:-
They wait for a long time before there’s finally news.
They all collectively hold their breath as the doctor walks into the room. He look over at them all before announcing, “He’s stable.”
A wave of relief floods through the room, but El thinks there’s an added tension when they’re informed that he isn’t allowed visitors yet.
But Wayne follows the doctor out the door and has a very stern word with him before he’s reluctantly allowed to disappear down the hall.
A few minutes later, he comes back to the room and asks, “El?”
El sits up straighter. “Yes?”
“He’s asking for you.”
El glances at all her friends before she stands up and follows (who Dustin had told her is) Eddie’s uncle. As she gets to the room, she looks at all the tubes connected to Eddie’s body, and wonders how he even asked for her.
But as she gets closer to the bed, she sees Eddie’s eyes crack slightly open.
“Lean down so he can whisper to you,” Wayne advises.
El leans closer and hears Eddie says, “I know… how… to get… to Max.”
El leans back and grabs Eddie’s hand. “Show me.”
With that, she’s taken into a vision of horrors, of Eddie dying and coming back. His heart restarted by Vecna for some unknown reason. A vision of all the bodies tied to the tree but Max’s spot is empty. But there’s something there. Something that’s trapped in the empty vines. But just as she sees it, a clock strikes in the distance, and it all begins to disappear.
She gasps as she steps away from Eddie, catching her breath as Wayne asks what the hell is happening.
But she can only run out of the room, heading toward Max’s room knowing where she needs to go to find her and bring her back.
#steddie#okay well this was supposed to be strictly steddie#then it just got away from me#I blacked out for like thirty minutes#and now you have this#I don’t know#eddie munson#steve harrington#stranger things#el#eleven
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